Napoli vs Torino

Napoli and Torino clash this week in a direct confrontation between clubs that are both coming off of midweek Coppa Italia matches. Torino had a good experience in their midweek match as they beat AS Roma while Napoli lost to Roma’s other Serie A club, SS Lazio. The two sides drew their last Serie A matches a week ago.

The side managed by Reja were held to a 1-1 draw away on their visit to Siena at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in week 16. With the point earned the partenopei are now in 7^th place with 22 points, just 2 points back of Palermo and a UEFA Cup slot. Napoli are winners of just 2 of their last 5 matches with both of those victories coming at home. In fact, they are winners of 3 straight matches at the San Paolo. Their loss to Lazio earlier this week was by a 2-1 score in the away leg which puts them in decent shape to get through to the next round of the Cup if they can take care of business at home. The good news for Reja is that he will be able to count on what pretty much will be a full strength side against Torino. Savini and the Argentine Lavezzi both return from suspension meaning that Marcelo Zalayeta, who leads the club with 7 goals, will be reunited with Lavezzi in attack.

Torino played AS Roma twice over the span of 5 days. In the first meeting they were held to a 0-0 draw at home at the Stadio Olimpico di Torino for their Serie A match. The following match saw them defeat Roma 3-1 behind 2 goals from Uruguayan Alvaro Recoba. Ironically, Recoba’s 2 goals in that match are just 1 shy of matching Torino’s entire offensive output over their last 7 league matches. They are winless over those 7 matches with just 2 draws to show for their efforts with only 3 goals scored. Their last win came back in October at the expense of last place Cagliari. That stretch sees them sit in 15^th place of the league table with 16 points, 1 behind Lazio. The news continues to get worse for the granata as this week manager Novellino will be missing Rubin, Motta, Comotto and Lanna to injury. This leaves Torino without any fullbacks for this match. They will look to improvise by playing Dellafiore and Vailatti out of position.

Napoli appear poised to continue their strong play at home and make it 4 straight victories at the San Paolo. Torino did beat Roma this week but it was by no means the giallorossi’s strongest 11 and the fact that they have only been able to score 3 goals over their past 7 matches only puts more pressure on their back line to play error free football. Look for Napoli to hold serve at home.

Prediction: Napoli (2-0)